News in Brief

Wash. District Teachers Vote To Start School

The longest teachers' strike in Washington state's history ended
last week, when a judge ordered Marysville educators back to work after
50 days on the picket line.

Striking teachers voted overwhelmingly to return to school after the
directive from Superior Court Judge Linda Krese, said Rich Wood, a
spokesman for the Marysville Education Association, a 660-member
affiliate of the National Education Association. Teachers in the
Seattle suburb who refused could have been fined. ("In Marysville, Wash., Strike Has
Closed Schools So Far," Oct. 22, 2003.)

"The fact remains that they still don't have a contract," Mr. Wood
said, adding that "teachers are stronger and more united than they've
ever been."

Teachers are fighting a new state salary schedule and wanted a 7.5
pay increase over a three-year contract, among other objectives. The
school board endorses the new salary format and contends it does not
have the money for the raises.

"They want a 7.5 percent increase when many here don't even have
jobs," said Judy Parker, a spokeswoman for the 11,000-student
district.

Because the school year did not start until last week, students will
be required to attend into the summer, she said, though no school
calendar has yet been set.

—Julie Blair

Lawrence Superintendent Passes Mass. Licensure Test on 4th Try

Wilfredo T. Laboy, the superintendent of the Lawrence, Mass., public
schools who drew national attention for failing to pass a state
educator-licensure test, has passed on his fourth try.

Mr. Laboy was criticized by his peers and commentators in the media
when he put 12 teachers on leave for failing the Oral Proficiency
Index, which measures the English proficiency of educators for whom
English is a second language. At the time, he had already taken and
failed the test at least once.

The superintendent, who is from Puerto Rico, took the
writing-mechanics section of the Massachusetts Tests for Educator
Licensure again on Sept. 13. He found out last week that he had
garnered a perfect score on that section, which was the only one he had
not passed his first three times around.

Although he has been a certified educator and administrator in New
York state since 1991, he was required to take the test to become
licensed in Massachusetts when he joined the 13,000-student district as
its superintendent in July 2000.

The Massachusetts state board of education was prepared to open the
superintendent's position up to other candidates had Mr. Laboy not
passed the tests by Dec. 31.

—Catherine A. Carroll

Federal Grants to Publicize Parents' School Choice Options

Three national organizations will share $1.3 million in federal
grants to inform parents about the education options available under
the No Child Left Behind Act.

The Black Alliance for Educational Options, or BAEO; the Hispanic
Council for Reform and Education Options, or CREO; and the Greater
Educational Opportunities Foundation will use the grants from the U.S.
Department of Education to expand or develop public-information
campaigns. The marketing efforts will cover public school choice,
charter schools, and free tutoring.

Money for the grants comes from the department's Fund for the
Improvement of Education.

BAEO will focus its efforts in cities with large low-income black
communities, including Dallas, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia.
Hispanic CREO's public-awareness campaign will focus on Austin, Texas;
Camden, N.J.; Dallas; Miami; and San Antonio. Both BAEO and CREO are
based in Washington.

The Greater Educational Opportunities Foundation, located in
Indianapolis, will be able to bolster its efforts to reach parents in
Denver and Gary, Ind. The foundation offers a toll-free number and Web
site exploring parents' options under the federal law.

—Karla Scoon Reid

U.S. Judge Rejects Teacher's Lawsuit Over Federal Law

A federal judge in Kansas has dismissed the effort of a public
school teacher to sue the U.S. government over the federal No Child
Left Behind Act, the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act.

The plaintiff, Brian K. Kegerreis, alleged that the federal law is
unfair and unconstitutional because it seeks to hold only school
personnel accountable if students at a given school do not achieve
satisfactory test scores.

But the judge on Oct. 9 rejected the motion to hear the case, noting
in part that the U.S. government is generally protected from such
lawsuits unless it has expressly waived its sovereign immunity.

In addition, U.S. District Judge Kathryn H. Vratil said in the
five-page decision, the "plaintiff's alleged injury is hypothetical and
depends on (1) the performance of students at his school on
standardized tests over the next 11 years and (2) the Department of
Education's future choice of any remedy to be imposed as a result of
student test scores."

—Erik W. Robelen

Measure on Class-Size Panel Off November Ballot in N.Y.C

A referendum that could establish a commission to study possible
limits on class size in New York City can't go on the November ballot
after all.

That was the ruling of the Appellate Division of the New York
Supreme Court on Oct. 20. The United Federation of Teachers, the city
teachers' union that spearheaded the petition drive, vowed to
appeal.

The decision reverses an Oct. 2 ruling by a trial-court judge, who
found unconstitutional a state law allowing a proposal to establish a
charter-revision commission to be bumped off the city ballot by
mayorally sponsored measures that propose changing the city charter.
("Judge Backs Drive to
Place Class-Size Issue on Ballot," Oct. 15, 2003.)

Included on the Nov. 4 ballot will be three proposed revisions to
the city charter, formulated by a charter-review commission appointed
by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Those proposals do not pertain to
education.

The charter-revision commission proposed by the UFT-led coalition
would set up a panel to study placing limits on class size in the 1.1
million-student school system. Plans to impose such caps could then be
placed on a future ballot.

—Catherine Gewertz

Teenager Claims Pregnancy Led N.Y.C. School to Force Her Out

A 15-year-old student in New York City has filed suit against the
school district, claiming she was illegally forced out of her high
school because she is pregnant.

The girl has been readmitted to Martin Luther King Jr. High School
in Manhattan, but her lawyers want the city to draft additional
policies to prevent improper transfers.

"We want to make sure kids are not going be pushed out like this
again," said Elisa F. Hyman, one of the lawyers representing the
teenager.

Advocates for Children, the nonprofit group that filed the suit in
U.S. District Court in Brooklyn on Oct. 10, contends school officials
tried to transfer the student without proper notification to her family
or opportunity to respond.

The group filed the suit as a class action, arguing that numerous
city students are being wrongly forced out of their schools for
pregnancy and other reasons, including poor grades and attendance.
Another class action, filed by the group in January, challenges what
that suit contends was the improper expulsion of an English-language
learner. ("Discharge of
English-Learner at Issue in N.Y.C. Lawsuit," News in Brief, Feb.
12, 2003.)

The city's department of education issued a statement saying that
Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein "has made clear that improperly
discharging students is unacceptable, and the department has enacted a
new policy to that end."

—Catherine Gewertz

Death

Louise Day Hicks, who became nationally known as a leader of the
fight against Boston's attempt to achieve racial integration in its
public schools through busing, has died at age 87.

Mrs. Hicks, who died Oct. 21, was a lawyer who ran unsuccessfully
for mayor of Boston and served multiple terms on its City Council in
the 1960s and '70s. She also served briefly in the U.S. House of
Representatives in the early 1970s. But it was her tenure on Boston's
school board in the 1960s, including service as its chairwoman, that
first brought her wide attention.

In the 1985 book Common Ground, which detailed Boston's
tumultuous struggle over school desegregation, author J. Anthony Lukas
noted that Mrs. Hicks steadfastly refused to concede that the schools
were segregated.

She denied charges that she was a racist, saying she viewed the
world in colorblind terms, Mr. Lukas reported. Championing the cause of
neighborhood schools, she attributed much of the integration fight to
outside forces seeking to dictate to local residents how their schools
should be run.

The cause of her death was not reported. Her sister-in-law told the
Associated Press that Mrs. Hicks had been ill for some time.

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